rior wool, are descendants of the few which survived the vast sand-storms which, about 1700, overwhelmed the villages on the Gobi plateau and killed all the people. The two species of camel are the true or Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius), having one hump, and the Bactrian camel (Camelus Bactrianus), with two humps. These humps are stores of flesh and fat, reabsorbed in support of the animal when overtaken by famine, as is so likely to happen.

The former is the common and widespread species, found from northwestern India and the lowlands of Afghanistan down to the extremity of Arabia east of the Red Sea and Somaliland to the south, and westward as far as the African deserts extend. They have also been introduced into Australia, Spain, Zanzibar, and the southwestern United States, but without permanent economic success. The United States Government spent much money and pains to acclimatize them as an army transport service in the dry southwestern regions, about 1857; the Civil War interrupted the arrangements, but the attempts made by private hands to utilize the animals were not profitable. Many were turned loose and remained wild along the Mexican border, but multiplied very little, and they are now supposed to be extinct. The British Government has made extensive use of them in its military operations in India and Upper Egypt, both as baggage animals, and in hauling artillery, and as mounts for a division of 'cavalry' known as the 'camel corps.' Consult Gleichen, With the Camel Corps Up the Nile, London, 1888, wherein many interesting facts as to the habits and qualifications of the animal are given.

What country was the original home of this species is uncertain; it seems more thoroughly adapted to a sandy region than the Bactrian, and is presumed to have had a more southerly habitat than the latter, probably inhabiting Arabia and perhaps the Sahara when first enslaved by primitive men. It is singularly adapted to subsistence in the desert by the structural qualities else where mentioned (see CAMELIDE), and by its ability to bite off and consume the tough shrubbery and even thorny plants which alone grow there, and to endure the burning heat and flying sand. To this end it has acquired not only the thick and broad sole-pads, but the thick callosities on the joints of the legs and on the chest upon which it rests (in a kneeling posture) when it lies down; moreover, the nostrils may be closed against the flying dust, and the eyes are shaded and shielded by very long eyelashes. Its extremely acute sense of smell, especially for water, is another life-saving provision. All these qualities have combined to render it so highly serviceable to man in the great wastes that separate the habitable regions south and east of the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian seas, that it is safe to say these could never have been colonized and have been the scenes of the momentous incidents and impulses they have contributed to civilization had it not been for the assistance of this ungainly and unlovely creature. "I can speak from experience," remarks Captain Wellby (Twixt Sirdar and Menelik, New York, 1901), "of this marvelous endurance of camels, for on a previous trip in Somaliland I once marched with a string of camels for eleven days, during which time none of them had a drop [of water]."

The Bactrian camel is better adapted, by its smaller size and heavier build, harder and more cloven feet, longer and finer wool, and other qualities, to a rocky and cooler region, and its home is central Asia, from northern Turkestan to Mongolia. Its endurance is equally remarkable, under different circumstances, with that of its southern congener, for it withstands the awful climate of the Tibetan plateau, where the temperature rises to 140° F. in summer and sinks to Arctic cold in winter; it tramps with burdens of tea or hauling wagons or sledges over the plains, and often through wintry snows, from Peking to Lake Baikal, and carries heavy loads over the lofty passes of the Hindu Kush, and across the flinty plains of Afghanistan, and thence to Persia. It is this ability to endure climatic extremes, variety of fare, and famine, which has perpetuated the camel through a longer generic history than that of almost any other animal, and has made it of so much service to mankind in regions unendurable by most cattle or horses.

The Arabian camel carries twice the load of a mule. The Bactrian camel is sometimes loaded with 1000 or even 1500 pounds weight, although not generally with so much. A caravan sometimes contains 1000, sometimes even 4000 or 5000 camels. The supply of food carried with the caravan for the use of the camels is very scanty; a few beans, dates, carob-pods, or the like, are all that they receive after a long day's march, when there is no herbage on which they may browse. The pace of the loaded camel is steady and uniform, but slow-about 21⁄2 miles per hour. Some of the slight dromedaries, however, can carry a rider more than 100 miles in a day. The motion of the camel is peculiar, jolting the rider in a manner extremely disagreeable to those who are unaccustomed to it; both the feet on the same side being successively raised, so that one side is thrown forward, and then the other.

The patience of the camel has been celebrated by some authors, but this is mainly indifference and stupidity. It submits because it knows no better, cares nothing for its master, is influenced to a very slight degree by either kindness or harshness, is unhappy when alone, and always untrustworthy: is cowardly, and, at the rutting season, is subject to sudden and violent fits of rage, when it uses its teeth with terrible effect.

The camel produces only one young one at a time, or rarely two. It lives thirty or forty years. During the long ages it has been subjected (the word 'domesticated' hardly applies) to man, almost as many breeds have been created as in the case of the rose, and there is a vast difference between those bred as baggage animals and those reared for the saddle; the latter. light and swift, often capable of traversing 100 miles of desert a day, are 'dromedaries,' whether onehumped or two-humped.

The great value of the camel to the desert people is due to its manifold usefulness, for besides its utility as a carrier of both man and his burden, and as a means of trade, its flesh is good food, and the milk is excellent; from the hair. cloth, ropes, etc., are made; the hide is serviceable; the bones (in eastern Asia) serve as ivory and the dung is in some regions almost the sole dependence of the nomads for fuel. The animal is nevertheless steadily decreasing in im

4. LLAMA (Lama glama).

5. ARABIAN CAMEL, Dromedary type. 6. BACTRIAN OR TWO-HUMPED CAMEL.

portance by the advance of railways, the opening of wagon roads, and other supersessions of its service, even in the remoter parts of its arid domain. See Plate of CAMELS AND LLAMAS.

CAMEL (from camel, as carrying heavy burdens). A water-tight, box-like contrivance designed for lifting ships, sunken weights, etc. The use of wooden floats for lightening the draught of a ship to permit her to pass over a shoal or bar is very old, but the invention of hollow floats, or camels, is ascribed to the Dutch, and their first use is said to have been about 1688. The ordinary camel is a simple rectangular box float, and is much used in navy-yards and private shipbuilding establishments. The camels designed by the Dutch were sometimes a hundred feet or more in length, 20 feet broad, and made to fit the sides of the ship; they were allowed to fill with water, hauled up close to the vessel's sides, and secured in place by chains and lashings. When the ship reached the shoal or bar the water was pumped out of the camels, and the increased buoyancy thus obtained raised the ship enough to materially decrease her draught. Modern camels which are used in wreck-raising are generally built of steel and fitted with machinery for working the chains which support the wreck or attach it to the camel.

CAMEL-BIRD. The ostrich; a book-name. CAMEL CRICKET, or CAMEL LOCUST. A mantis (q.v.).

CAMEL'IDE (Neo-Lat., from Gk. káunλos, kamēlos, camel). The camel family, constituting

3

FEET OF FOSSIL CAMELS.

1. Poëbrotherium, an extinct primitive type. 2. Existing camel, showing change in dentition.

two species (see CAMEL), and Llama, the American llamas, considered by some naturalists one species, by others four. (See LLAMA.) These animals agree in peculiarities of structure, which separate them from other ruminants, mainly as follows: Though a full set of incisor teeth are present in the young, only the outermost con

tinue through life as isolated laniariform teeth; canines are present in both jaws, and the molars are solenodont in type. The skeleton has many peculiarities, of which a striking one is the excessive comparative length of the thighbone, and the detachment of the hind leg from the body. The limbs are long, the ankle-bones peculiar, and all traces of phalanges are lost, except the third and fourth. These are not incased in matched hoofs, like other artiodactyls, but the foot consists of two elongated toes, each tipped with a small, nail-like hoof, the feet resting not upon the hoofs, but upon elastic pads or cushions under the toes. In the camels the toes are united by a common sole, thus resting upon one extended pad, instead of having each a separate one, as in the llama group, the broader expanse of the foot enabling the animals of the one genus more easily to traverse the loose sand of the desert, while the narrow

form and separation of the toes in the other is suited to the uneven surface of rocky heights. The head is long, without any horns or antlers, the lips extended and mobile, the neck of unusual length; the blood-corpuscles are oval instead of circular, as in all other mammals, and the digestive organs are characterized by a remarkable peculiarity in the structure of the stomach. "Though these animals ruminate," to quote Flower and Lydekker, "the interior of the rumen or paunch (see RUMINANT) has no villi on its surface, and there is no distinct psalterium or manyplies. Both the first and second compartments are remarkable for the presence of a number of pouches or cells in their walls, with muscular septa, and a sphincter-like arrangement of their orifices, by which they can be shut off from the rest of the cavity, and into which the fluid portion only of the contents of the stomach is allowed to enter." Such is the celebrated arrangement by which the camel stores in its stomach more water than it can immediately use, and by gradually using it is able to make far longer journeys across arid regions than otherwise would be possible. This has customarily been regarded as a very striking special provision for the needs of the camel of the desert; but it is equally characteristic of the llamas, which inhabit well-watered regions, and has evidently descended to both from & remote common ancestry, regardless of present environments. See ALIMENTARY SYSTEM.

By

The structural evolution of the camel recalls that of the horse. (See EQUIDE.) In the oldest Tertiary rocks of the ancient lake region of the Rocky Mountains, at the dawn of the Eocene, have been found diminutive remains suggesting this type, and in the Upper Eocene fossil skeletons undoubtedly cameloid. These belong to an animal (Prototylops) hardly larger than a jackrabbit, yet camel-like in many particulars. It had four distinct toes, of which the third and fourth were most useful, while the lateral second and fifth were smaller; the metapodial bones were disconnected, and there was no space between the bunodont molars and the front teeth, where the canines and incisors were alike. changes that went on analogous to those in other ungulates, there is found in subsequent cameloid forms increase in size, and a constant tendency toward acquiring the dentition and pedal anatomy characterizing modern forms. The next advanced form is greater in size, and the lateral toes, no longer useful, hang to the side of the foot above the ground like a deer's. A steady increase of size goes through the ascending formations of the Miocene, until we reach Procamelus, at the top of the Miocene (Loup Fork beds of Wyoming), which was as big as sheep and very llama-like, with teeth nearly of modern type and the metapodial bones firmly united when fully adult. During the Miocene the western American plateau seems to have been an arid desert, and under such conditions were developed the large, splayed feet, bereft of the useless side toes, the great sole-pads, and the pouched stomach that characterize the race. At the close of the Miocene, however, there came about a steady change toward a warmer, moister climate, inducing forest growth, which put an end to camel life in North America. Meanwhile they had migrated into South America, where fossil remains of great size are

a

found, and where the family still survives, in the modified and perhaps degenerate forms of the llamas; and also northwestward to Siberia, and thence into Central Asia, where their remains are found in the Pliocene rocks of India, but not earlier. Here the conditions were favorable, and the modern camels seem to have developed. It thus appears that North America was the original home of the Camelidæ, and that they "were derived from pig-like animals quite independently of the true ruminants." For particulars as to American fossil camels, consult Wortman, Bulletin American Museum Natural History, X. (New York, 1898).

CAM'ELI'NA (Neo-Lat., probably from Gk. xaual, chamai, on the ground + Xvov, linon, flax). A genus of cruciferous plants embracing about a dozen species, most of which are European. Camelina sativa is cultivated in Europe and Asia for the oil contained in the seed. The stalks contain a kind of fibre, which is sometimes used for making brooms. The plant has become introduced into the United States, where it is known as false flax, or gold of pleasure, and is considered a bad weed. See GOLD OF PLEASURE.

CAMEL LIA (Neo-Lat., named after Joseph Kamel, a Moravian traveler of the Seventeenth

in the United States.

Century, who first described the Camellia japonica). A genus of plants of the natural order Ternstromiacea, nearly hardy evergreen shrubs or trees, and natives of China, Japan, and the north of India. Camellias are now extensively cultivated as greenhouse shrubs in Europe and Many varieties are in cultivation. The best known and most esteemed is Camellia japonica, a greenhouse shrub. Its leaves are ovate-elliptical, almost acuminate and serrate shining; the flowers are without stalks, mostly solitary, large, and rose-like. It is a native of Japan, and there and in China it has been carefully cultivated from time immemorial. In its wild state it has red flowers, and the red

The

single camellia is much used by gardeners as a stock on which to graft the fine varieties, the flowers of which are generally double. colors of the cultivated forms are various, including red, white, and yellow, and the varieties also differ much in the form and position of the petals. The flowering time is in autumn, winter, and spring. Camellias grow best in cool houses. Free access of air is of great importance, and water must be given very liberally, yet with such caution that the soil may never

remain soaked after the immediate wants of the plant are supplied. The proper soil for camellias is a loose black mold; a little sand and peat are often advantageously mixed with loam to Camellias are often propagated by form it. cuttings, or layers, but generally by grafting or inarching. The single camellia is also propagated by seed, and in this way the best stocks for grafting are procured. Of the other species of camellia, the most hardy, and one of the most beautiful, is Camellia reticulata. The seeds of certain varieties, as Camellia oleifera and drupifera, are used in China for the production of an olive-like oil. The true tea-plant is a close ally of the camellia. See TEA.

CAMEL'OPARD. See GIRAFFE.

CAMEL ΟΡARDALIS (Gk. καμηλοπάρδαλις, kamelopardalis, giraffe, literally camel-pard, from